


Echo

by Laylah



Category: Vagrant Story
Genre: F/M, Magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-17
Updated: 2009-11-17
Packaged: 2017-10-03 06:18:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laylah/pseuds/Laylah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"You are too quick with sorcery, for a witch hunter," he growls, and in the darkness at the edge of her vision his shade says, <i>Even Sydney allows me more privacy than this</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echo

Her shoulders hit the wall and she grunts, arches her back so her bound wrists won't follow suit -- so the fine bones there won't crack against the stone. There's cold fury in Hardin's face, his grip painfully tight around her arms, and for a second she feels vindicated by it, viciously proud to have proved him -- what? Flawed and human after all?

"You are too quick with sorcery, for a witch hunter," he growls, and in the darkness at the edge of her vision his shade says, _Even Sydney allows me more privacy than this_.

"Forgive me," Callo says. She needs to win him, not draw his ire. It was too hasty of her, that she sought to guide his thoughts with conversation, instead of simply listening to his heart. His thoughts never seem to stray far from Sydney.

The apology is all it takes to stay him; his grip eases, and he looks away. "If you cannot hold back for my sake, then do so for your own safety. Learn to curb the desire now, before the city wakes with the setting sun and the full seething heat of the Dark rises to tempt you."

Callo stares. "You -- are you _afraid_ of it?"

"No more than a soldier is afraid of a siege engine," Hardin says, and Callo glances past him, for the rest of his answer: _You're mad not to be_, his echo snarls.

He must catch the shift of her attention -- he lets go her shoulder and backhands her, his knuckles hard across her mouth, so her head snaps back. "What does it _take_ to make you listen?" he demands.

She can taste blood, and licks her lip to feel the split in it. The sharp red tang makes something shiver along her spine. "What does it take to stop a siege engine?" she asks, and lunges for him before more than his shade can answer.

_Greater force_, says Hardin's ghost, and then Callo's mouth is crushed to his and the second-sight vanishes, as though either she can't concentrate or he can't think at all. He bites her lip, pushes her back against the wall, and her blood is on his tongue when he takes her mouth. She bites back, writhing, hooking one leg around his thigh so she'll have the leverage to cant her hips and grind against him. Her nails scrabble for purchase in the cracks of the stone at her back, and her limbs feel as though they're full of smoke. She can feel him hardening against her --

And he wrenches away, so that she staggers and almost can't catch herself against the wall. "Now do you see?" he asks. He spits out her blood, glaring. "You would be a fool to leave yourself exposed thus."

The Dark leaves her on her next breath, leaves her limbs leaden and chilled, her mouth oily and foul. "I didn't realize," she says.

Hardin turns away. "But you survived the lesson," he says coldly. "Lea Monde is not often so kind. Pray your luck holds."


End file.
